SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii -- U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii hosted two employee town halls, here, and at Fort Shafter, Feb. 9-10, to address questions and to update personnel on Installation Management Command manpower reductions for fiscal year 2013.
USAG-HI currently has 104 over-hire positions, and the garrison is using a voluntary procedure to realign personnel into valid vacancies by Sept. 30.
"We're going to do everything we can to get to our (IMCOM) mandates while keeping our customers' needs in mind," said Col. Douglas Mulbury, commander, USAG-HI. "Status quo employees are not an option.
"It's not that individuals haven't done the work, haven't made an impact," Mulbury explained. "Everyone's doing important work, but these were the guidelines given to us. At every level, we are trying to take care of individuals as we work through this process. We're going to try to take care of everybody and the organization."
Garrison has implemented a four-phases process to reach manning targets. The Administrative Reassignments Phase is complete, and the Voluntary Reassignments Phase is in progress.
During the administrative phase, directorates and staff made needed changes to the Table of Distribution and Allowances, or TDA.
In the voluntary phase, the Resource Management Office received 142 consideration requests, or CRs, from personnel in over-hire positions, who had applied for valid vacancies throughout the garrison.
This voluntary phase required over-hire personnel to provide CRs for valid vacancies. This week, directorates are reviewing those CRs and recommending the best-qualified applicants for those positions.
Next, USAG-HI's Personnel Management Board will review CR recommendations and justifications from directorates and staff, and then forward the decisions to the commander for his approval.
Employees will be notified about their CRs, Feb. 21, and the PMB hopes most employees will move to their gaining organization no later than March 25.
"We're trying to get the right people into the right seats in garrison," said Jim Duttweiler, deputy commander, USAG-HI. "We've going to make maximum use of the talents we have to match the needs in garrison."
The second phase includes Voluntary Early Retirement Authority/Voluntary Separation Incentive, or VERA/VSIP. Presently, 67 employees have been approved; 47 have accepted the option.
The VERA/VISP option was first offered in 2010. Since it has reopened, an additional nine employees have submitted applications. All VERA/VISP employees must retire by March 31.
"Based on this voluntary process, we still don't think we can get from where we are to where we need to be," Mulbury said. "We think there is going to be a substantial mismatch to meet the mandate.
"At that point," he continued, "it may become necessary for involuntary movements."
The remaining two phases -- the Internal Reassignments Phase and a Management-Directed Phase -- start in April. During these phases, the directorate and/or commander may move any qualified personnel within authorized positions that were not filled during the voluntary CR phase. These actions will create new vacancies, but the new vacancies will be available to remaining over-hire personnel.
Before the employee town hall ended, leaders stated they might have to redirect a mismatched employee into a lower grade; however, pay retention guidelines will apply.
"After this process, there will be jobs we will not be able to do, jobs where we will not have the people to do them," said Bob Eastwood, director, Directorate of Public Works.
"We'll have to prioritize our core functions," he explained, looking at the way ahead.
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